A group consisting of the governors of Oregon, Washington and California, as well as British Columbia Environmental Minister Mary Polak, recently signed a climate change agreement that will require the support of state legislatures moving forward.

While California and British Columbia already have aggressive carbon emission reduction programs in place, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and Washington Governor Jay Inslee may have more work on their hands when it comes to creating similar programs in their respective states. This past July, a bill was rejected by Oregon’s state senate that would have repealed the sunset on provisions related to low carbon fuel standards.

The agreement signed by the group called for the regions to lead national, as well as international, climate change policy, align 2050 greenhouse gas reduction targets, utilize proven scientific evidence to educate state and local governments on the need to reduce emissions, and press for an international climate change agreement in 2015.

A move by the White House to roll back automobile fuel-efficiency targets set by the Obama administration and to challenge the right of California and other states to set stricter tailpipe emission rules faces an uphill climb.

After a court challenge stymied its efforts to give makers of glider kits a reprieve from challenged provisions of its greenhouse gas regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn an order to not enforce those regulations against small manufacturers of glider kits.

A federal court has granted a temporary stay that suspends the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to not enforce for 2018 and 2019 a 300-unit production cap put in place on the manufacture of glider kits/vehicles that do not comply with Phase 2 GHG emission rules.